Coin-controlled locking mechanisms



April 10, 1962 MGDONNELL COIN-CONTROLLED LOCKING MECHANISMS 2Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan. 5, 1960 m m m m R A. MDozuzeZZ jiionzeys.

April 10, 1962 R. R. MCDONNELL COIN-CONTROLLED LOCKING MECHANISMS FiledJan. 5, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 JNVENTOR.

BY K R McDozzneZZ liiornqys 3,028,941 CDIN-CGNTRGLLED LDCKHNG MECHANISMdRalph R. McDonnell, 17 Arlington Lane, Fox Lake, Ill. Filed Jan. 5,1960, Ser. No. 651 2 Claims. (Cl. 194-78) My invention relates to lockmechanisms for garments Wh1ch are stored temporarily in public places,such as restaurants, clockrooms, etc. More particularly, the inventiondeals with a mechanism for retaining the garment, and is an improvementof the mechanism covered in my co-pending application filed March 31,1957 under Serial No. 647,524, now US. Patent No. 2,982,388. Suchmechanism operates in conjunction with a rack or other support for thegarment, employs a key, and requires a C0111 to render the mechanismoperative. Thus, the garment-such as an ovcrcoatis mounted on a hangersuspended from the rack; and one end of a chain is attached to the rack,the chain being looped through the sleeve of the overcoat and applied tothe locking mechanism after the coin is deposited into the same. Thekey, which is normally retained by the mechanism, is then released andpartially ejected for removal by the patron. Now the overcoat cannot beremoved from the looped chain. When the removal of the overcoat isdesired by the patron, the operation of the key actuates the mechanismfor the release of the chain, permitting the removal of the overcoat.When this is accomplished, the mechanism again secures a retentive holdon the key, and becomes automatically re-set for the next user.

While the mechanisrn'covered in the aforesaid patent application servesthe purpose of the invention, it is quite involved and expensive toproduce, and one object of the present improvement is to devise amechanism which is quite simple and relatively cheap to produce.

A further object is to so design the improved mechanism that a coin willnot be lost to the patron without the benefit of locking his garment.

A still further object of the improvement is to extend the operation ofthe key lock with a simple pressing movement effective to unlock thechain when the key is turned.

Another object is to incorporate the pressing action in the key lock forthe release of its cylinder for rotation by the key, such rotationprocuring the unlocking of the chain.

' A better understanding of the improvement may be had by reference tothe accompanying drawings, in which- FIG. 1 is a frontal view of theleft-hand end-portion of the rack, showing a garment locked to the same;

FIG. 2 is a section on the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged section on the line 3-4; of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a section on the line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a section on the line 5--5 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged section on the line 6-6 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a section on the key-lock taken on the line 77 of FIG. 3 withthe lock mechanism in a position to permit turning the key;

FIG. 8 is a similar view showing the lock mechanism set to prevent thekey from being turned or removed, and

FIG. 9 is a section on the line 9-9 of FIGS.

Referring specifically to the drawing, 10 denotes the rack between whoseends is mounted a bar 12 for hanging garments 13. Each of these ismountable on a conventional hangar 15; and the garment hangers arelocked to the bar by the use of an eye 16 instead of the conventionalhook.

Each garment hanger 15 is made with a lateral eye 18 in the center forattaching one end of the chain 19. The top of the rack is in the form ofa cabinet 20, whose front is formed by a series of panels 23 grouped ina contacting succession and corresponding in number to the garmenthangers 15. The panels may be numbered in a series, as shown in FIG. 1;and the free end of each chain 19 carries a fiat plunger 25 for use inrelation to a slot as in the corresponding panel 23 in the same manneras in my aforesaid patent application. Again, each panel 23 carries aconventional cylinder lock 27 adapted to received a key 28. y

When a garment-receiving chain 19 is not in use, it hangs free as seenin the left-hand end of FIG. 1; and the key 23 of the correspondingpanel Z3marked No. 1is retained in the cylinder lock as shown. However,when a chain has been looped to retain a garmentas shown in the centerof FIG. l-the plunger 25 may be used to back a coin 30 inserted in theslot 25 of the corresponding panel 23, namely, No. 2. Each panel carriesa. locking mechanism, and the mechanism of panel No. 2 then acts to lockthe plunger from removal While releasing the key 23 as mentioned before,so that the key may be completely removed by the owner of the lockedgarment. The cylinder lock of panel No. 2 therefore appears minus thekey in FIG. 1.

The locking mechanism of each panel 23 primarily involves a verticalplate 35 which extends rearwardiy from the panel along one side of theslot 26that is, the righthand side when looking from the front-the platehaving a frontal side wing 35a which is welded to the panel 23 to securethe support of the plate. The latter receives upper and lower groups ofhorizontal strips to form runways for the coin 3t} and a slide 49. Thus,as seen in FIG. 4, the upper group of strips involves an outer one 42, amiddle one 43 and an inner one 4-4. While the upper group of strips iseven at the top, the strips 42 and 44 extend lower than the inner strip43, so that a channel is formed in the under side of the strip group.This construction also applies to the lower group of strips 42a, 43a and44a, but in reverse. However, the outer strip 42a is divided to form awide vertical passage 47, as shown in FIG. 5. Each group of strips iswelded to each other and to the plate 35. I

The space between the upper strip 4-2 and the lower one 42a iscalculated to clear a passage for the coin 30 that is inserted throughthe slot 26; and it is seen in FIG. 5 that the strip 42a has adepression 4217 just back of the slot 26 in order to form an initialrest for the coin and prevent it from rolling out. i

The facing channels of the upper and lower strip groups form a passage43b between the strips 43 and 43a for the slide 40. As seen in FIG. 3,the slide is drawn forwardly by a spring 49; and the slide is stampedfrom the side seen in FIG. 3 with a lip 50 projecting on the reverseside, as noted in FIG. 6, such lip being in the path of the coin 30.Thus, should the coin move rearwardly it will meet the lip 50, backingthe slide.

As in the structure of the aforesaid patent application, the plunger 25is designed to be inserted in front of the coin to push the same inrearward direction when the looped chain is to be locked. In that event,the progress of the coin brings it over the passage 47; and the cointherefore drops through the passage into the bottom of the cabinet. Theadvance of the plunger to the limit a defined by its shoulders a, whenthey meet the panel 23, places the plunger in a position to be lockedagainst retraction, so that the looped chain becomes locked in thismanner. Such locking action is accomplished by the advance of a bolt 55through an opening 25:: in the plunger to seat in a pocket formed in theplate 35.

The bolt is the top extension of an arm 57 carried by the cylinder 27aof the key-lock 27. It was mentioned previously that the coin backed theslide during its travel rearwardly into the cabinet, the limit of thismovement appearing in FIG. 6. The arm 57 is always under a pullinginfluence toward the plunger 25 by a spring 59, and the bolt 55 isblocked by the slide from entering the opening 25b in the plunger, asseen in FIG. 4, before the coin and plunger are inserted in the slot 26.The slide is ordinarily drawn by a spring 49 to meet the back of thepanel 23. However, when the coin and plunger are inserted into the slot26, the slide will be hacked to a point clearing the bolt 55. Now, thelatter will be drawn by the spring 59 to .get in front of the slide andblock its return in forward direction. Also, the opening 25b in theplunger will now be in line with the bolt so that the latter willcontinue to be drawn by the spring 59 without any additional manualeffort to advance through the opening and seat in the pocket 3 511, asstated before. Both ends of the chain may now be considered as locked tothe cabinet; and the garment is safe against unauthorized removal.

Before the insertion of the coin and plunger as stated, the position ofthe bolt 55 was as shown in H6. 4, that is slightly retracted by theobstructing slide. The key is now retained from withdrawal by theconstruction of the key-lock as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. It is seen thatthe cylinder 2711 contains the usual springbacked turnblers 27bcontrollable in the yielding direction by the key 28; and the back partof thecylinder contains a spring designed to resist the full insertionof the key; the spring being backed by a screw 62 driven into thecylinder. Also, .the housing 27 .of the key-lock has a longitudinalpocket 27c facing the cylinder 27a. Therefore, the condition thatretains the key against withdrawal is the hold thereon by the tumblersas seen in PEG. 7, these being out of line in a rotary direction withthe side pocket 270. However, when a patron, in order to lock hisgarment,

inserts the coin and plunger into the slot 26, the locking action of thebolt 55 imparts a short clockwise turn to the cylinder 27a as seen fromthe front. While the directive to the patron is to remove the key nowthat his garment is locked, he may by force of habit attempt to turn thekey. To do this in a counter-clockwise direction while the key is fullyinserted would withdraw the bolt 55 from its locking hold on theplunger, so that the latter would pull out of the slot 26 from theweight of the chain and cause the garment to become unlocked and thecoin to be forfeited. The present mechanism automatically operates topreclude such an occurrence. Thus, when the cylinder 27a takes the shortclockwise turn as stated above, it brings the tumblers into line withthe longitudinal pocket 27c into which they slide, as shown in FIG. 8.This action frees the key from its mesh with the tumblers allowing thekey to be partly ejected by the internal spring 69 to the position shownin FIG. 8. Now the key cannot be turned; and the tendency will thereforebe for the patron to draw on it-particularly if he has noted itsautomatic partial ejectionand keep the key until he desires to return tothe rack to take his garment.

When the patron returns to the rack he inserts the key into the key-lock27 to the full extent indicated by full lines in FIG. 7, that is, bycompressing the spring 69 in the back part of the lock cylinder. Thiscauses the proper meshing of the key-teeth with the tumblers 27b toretract them to the diameter of the cylinder 2711. Now the key andcylinder may be turned to the left-that is, in a counterclockwisedirection as seen from the front-with- :drawing the bolt 55 from theplunger 25', so that the nasal latter may be removed to open the chain19. Also during this action the bolt clears the slide 40, so that thelatter is quickly drawn forwardly by the spring 49 to keep the bolt inthe retracted position, as seen in FIG. 4. The forward position of theslide both bars the bolt from plunger-locking movement and automaticallyre-sets the mechanism for the next coin-and-plunger entry when the samegarment locking unit is again to be used. It will now be recalled thatthe bolt in the retracted position accomplished the retention of the keyagainst withdrawal, so that it is so held until the same unit is againto be used for garment-locking purposes.

In respect to the mounting of the bolt arm 57 on the key-lock cylinder27, E65. 7 and 9 show that the cylinder extends with a threaded stem2711 which is flattened on opposite sides, as shown at 27.9. The arm 57is perforated to fit the flattened portion of the stem, receiving awasher 69 on the frontal side and a nut 70 on the rear side to properlysecure the arm on the cylinder.

It will now be apparent that the first condition to use the improvedlockin facility is the insertion of the required coin, since it forms anextension for the plunger to reach and back the slide. it would ofcourse be possible to do this by the insertion of a slug or metal blankin place of the coin where the unscrupulous use of the facility isdesired, but such attempts may be discounted because the rack isdesigned for indoor use and placement there it may be easily seen orwatched. A second consideration is the placement of the passage 47 at apoint before the slide clears the bolt, so that the departure of thecoin from the mechanism and the deposit of the coin into the cabinet 22are assured before the chain. loop can be locked to the rack. Further,the pocket 35b is provided as a positive limit for the advance of thebolt 55, so that the rotation of the key-lock cylinder will always stopat the point Where the key is removable, rather than depend on somepoint in the advance of the bolt to accomplish that purpose. Further,the major parts entering into the garment-locking mechanism have beenreduced to two--narnely, the bolt and the slide-by concentrating theplunger control in the key-lock. Finally, the mechanism is now quitesimple and compact, and therefore of a nature to be producedinexpensively and present a neat appearance.

I claim:

1. A coin-controlled locking device comprising a frontal support formedwith a slot into which a coin is insertible, a plunger formed with anopening and insertible into the slot to push the coin in rearwarddirection and stop at a given point, a key-lock carried by the supportand having a rotatable cylinder into which a key is insertible from thefront, a bolt carried by the cylinder and swingable toward the plungerby a partial turn of the cylinder, a slide normally barring the boltfrom reaching the plunger and backed by the coin to clear the plungerwhen the latter has reached said point, the opening in the plunger thenbeing in line with the bolt to receive the latter as a lock against theretraction of the plunger, the key-lock having means maintaining the keyin fully-inserted position and locked from retraction before saidpartial turn, and such means operating automatically to partially ejectthe key and release the same for removal when the bolt has locked theplunger as stated.

2. A coin-controlled locking device comprising a frontal support formedwith a slot into which a coin is insertible, a plunger formed with anopening and insertible into the slot to push the coin in rearwarddirection and stop at a given point, a key-lock carried by the supportand .having a rotatable cylinder into which a key is insertible from thefront, a bolt carried by the cylinder and swingable toward the plungerby a partial turn of the cylinder, a slide normally barring the boltfrom reaching the plunger and backed by the coin to clear the plungerwhen the latter has reached said point, the opening in the plunger thenbeing in line with the bolt to receive the latter as a lock 5 6 againstthe retraction of the plunger, the key-lock having References Cited inthe file of this patent means maintaining the key in fully-insertedposition and locked from retraction before said partial turn, and a com-UNITED STATES PATENTS pression spring in the back part of the cylinderand bear- 2,982,388 McDonnell May 2, 1961 ing forwardly on the key topartially eject the same for 6 removal when the bolt has locked theplunger as stated FOREIGN PATENTS and prevent the key from turning ineither direction. 811,406 Ger-many Aug. 20, 1951

